


Care To Dance?

by augendandaddend



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, Merthur - Freeform, Wedding, flowerboy merlin, good ending, i love love okay, lance and gwen get married, merlin and arthur meet at a wedding, merlin is sensitive, such a soft boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:08:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/augendandaddend/pseuds/augendandaddend
Summary: When Merlin promises himself to not be a hot mess at Gwen and Lance's wedding, he doesn't count on a tall, strapping blonde catching his eye.
Relationships: Gwaine & Merlin (Merlin), Gwaine & Percival (Merlin), Gwen & Merlin (Merlin), Gwen/Lancelot (Merlin), Lancelot & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin & Percival (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 178





	Care To Dance?

**Author's Note:**

> This now marks my 2nd fic ever. I'm still getting used to it, and so it's still pretty short, but I think I'm even happier with how this one turned out.

When Merlin found himself at Gwen and Lance’s garden wedding, he only expected tears from allergies. He should’ve known better, considering two of his best friends are tying the knot (finally).  
“Ready to get out there?” Morgana was the perfect choice for a wedding planner. She was detail-oriented with an iron fist. This means that when the choice was made for the wedding to be a kid-free zone, Merlin wasn’t allowed to say no to being flower-boy.  
Merlin scowled at her, but she only responded by fixing the crooked flower crown on top of his head. The music cued him in, and he stepped through the archway of the garden entrance. Stones lead the path to the gazebo that was lit up with fairy lights, and Merlin jokingly started to skip and twirl as he threw the rose petals. It got plenty of laughter and he saw Lance visibly relax, so the embarrassment was worth it.

~~

While Elyan had the honor of officiating the wedding thanks to a simple click on a website, Merlin tuned him out to look at the bride and groom. All nerves seem to have disappeared once they saw each other. Now, they both were practically gushing as they held hands and beamed at Gwen’s older brother.  
Merlin was also feeling impatient, but mostly for the free bar and food trucks, he saw setting up a couple of hours ago. He stands on Gwen’s side, along with Morgana, and a couple of her cousins. On Lance’s side, Merlin recognized Percy, Leon, and Gwaine, but the tall blonde was a new face. He took in his striking navy blue suit that brought out his eyes, the deep purple flower with a bright yellow center sticking out of his breast pocket.  
When Gwen chose pansies for her fall wedding, he had given her a funny look until she showed him a picture. The name may have gotten a bad reputation throughout time, but the flower is beautiful. Then, when he had questioned her decision in having a garden wedding during the fall, she shook her head, “Honestly, Merlin, do you know how many flowers grow in the fall?”  
He hadn’t. But looking around now, with the sun starting to set, the orange sky glowed within the backdrop of asters, cosmos, and marigolds. Plus, with the slight September chill at night, they won’t have to worry about sweating in their expensive clothes while dancing the night away.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts when he feels eyes on him. Merlin looks away from the sunset to the blonde man, staring intently at him. Not willing to entertain that thought, not yet, he only returns his attention to the bride and groom.

You haven’t been properly touched by anyone in months, so what? You were busy helping your best friends with wedding preparations. You were being a good person then, and you need to be a good person now.

His eyes slide over to the man once more. Those blazing eyes are still on him and--was that a smirk?! Oh no.

If you are part of the wedding party, you have an obligation to make sure everything runs smoothly. Wedding sex and drunk one-night stands are for guests only. Blondie might not have standards, but you do.

~~

“You guys were always like second parents to me when I couldn’t go home or did something stupid,” Merlin chuckled and lowered his champagne glass to look out at the small party. “The older I get, the more I realize that may never change. I still fully expect you to let me keep the spare key so I can crash on your couch without ringing that ridiculous doorbell.”

“It is not ridiculous!” Gwen protested.

“I think a full thirty seconds of ducks quacking is pretty ridiculous. I don’t care how much you like them.”

She huffs but grins at him. He bites his lip before continuing, “I think that alone attests to how much you love each other. Lance can’t stand ducks ever since he fell in a pond when we were ten. Sorry for revealing your secret, man, but you shouldn’t be lying to your wife. And even though Gwen is terrified of heights, she still went on that damn hot air balloon picnic for their first anniversary. She puked in the basket, but he was still so happy she was willing to go for him.”  
Merlin gazes out at the round tables, with glass jars filled with fairy lights matching the ones strewn about in the trees surrounding them. It was simple, but it fit Gwen and Lance so well, it felt otherworldly. He gives a soft smile to the newlyweds and raises his flute, “I think we can only dream of finding someone willing to give more than they take. Somehow, two of the brightest stars in this dim world found each other. Together, you can outshine the heavens.”  
Everyone respectively claps and sips their bubbly champagne while Merlin sits down and gulps it all in one go. If he’s going to be responsible tonight, might as well get a buzz out of it. Even if it only lasts a few minutes.

A little under an hour later, he slings Gwaine’s arm off of him and heads toward one of the food trucks parked on the street next to the garden entrance. Carne asada tacos are always a good choice, so Merlin makes his way into line and takes a deep breath of air.

“Gwen looks beautiful tonight, don’t you think?”

Merlin turns his head and finds Blondie standing behind him, “Yeah, she is. So is Lance.”

“My sister really knows how to put together a party,” He looks back at the garden, most guests are either eating, drinking, or dancing on the dark wood dance floor under a canopy of lights.

“You’re Morgana’s brother? Explains why I haven’t seen you around.”

He just shrugs, “We weren’t close when we were young, so I never hung out with your group. Then we got older and set aside our differences, but I only grew close with a couple of the guys so far. I think she’s still keeping a few of you to herself.”

Merlin ignores the pointed look at him, “Sibling rivalry, huh?”

“We took it to extreme levels growing up. Eventually got put in different schools so our dad wouldn’t have to pick us up from detention anymore.”

“But you have each other’s backs,” He pauses, thinking back on how much he wanted a sibling when he was a kid. “That’s nice.”

“Yeah, it is.”

Merlin sees that it’s his turn to order, so after he does so, he takes his food and walks back into the party. As attractive as the blonde is, he remembers his promise to himself. He has a history of trusting too easily, and too fast. That’s how he ended up having to move out of his previous apartment and into Gwen and Lance’s guest bedroom for nearly a year before he was able to afford a new place. Or when he had to delete all his social media apps (he still hasn’t worked up the nerve to make new accounts). It’s also the reason he carries around pepper spray and doesn’t like to drink in public.

He finds a seat at the table Percy and Gwaine are sitting at, “Hey guys. Have you eaten yet?”

“I have,” Percy fixes his navy bowtie. “I’m gonna be needing help with this one, though.”

Merlin fixes a glare onto Gwaine, “How many times have we warned you about eating before you drink?”

“But I don’t feel it as strongly as I do on an empty stomach!” The tall man whines and leans onto Percy.

“I wonder why that is,” Percy rolls his eyes.

“Here,” Merlin hands one of his tacos to Percy. “These things are loaded with grease, so more than one will upset my stomach, but it might do the drunkard some good.”

After a couple of failures, Percy finally manages to open Gwaine’s mouth wide enough to shove the taco in, “Down the hatch!”

Merlin laughs quietly before noticing a familiar figure making their way to the table. He pointedly takes a bite of his own taco to avoid conversation, but Blondie only takes the seat next to him, “My name is Arthur, by the way.”

Gwaine only excitedly glances between Merlin and Arthur while chewing the food in his mouth. Percy lets go of Gwaine and looks confused, “You guys haven’t met before?”

“Until Lance started getting serious with Gwen, I hadn’t met her or Merlin. Only heard stories about them through you guys and my possessive sister.”

“Oh,” Percy observes Merlin, who is obviously choosing to focus on his Mexican food rather than Arthur. And the handsome man, who is painfully Merlin’s type, is shamelessly staring at the smaller dark-haired man. “Well-” He gets up and heaves Gwaine off the folding chair. “I think that worked up his appetite, I’m gonna bring him by the trucks and see if he feels like eating anything else.”

Gwaine, who had swallowed just before, resisted, “But I want to watch this! It’s been so long since I’ve seen a good eyefuck!” Percy shushes him and pulls him away from the table.

“Uh,” Merlin feels his face getting hot. “He really needs to get a filter.”

“I’ve given up that hope long ago.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Hm? For what?”

“He didn’t make you uncomfortable?”

“Oh, the ‘eyefuck’ thing? No,” Arthur leans back in this seat and leans slightly towards Merlin. “Why should I feel uncomfortable when something is true?”

Merlin manages to get even redder, “...Ah.”

Don’t do it. Don’t you dare.

~~

You idiot.

Merlin sighs as he and Arthur buckle their pants and fix their hair in the bathroom mirror. It’s actually a pretty nice bathroom, considering it’s connected to a mansion. Lance and Gwen only rented out the garden, though, so Merlin couldn’t wander around the building to explore the lives of old money.  
He thinks of leaving the flower crown on the counter, and save himself any further embarrassment, but knowing how much it means to Gwen (Ahem, Morgana), he places it back on top of his head.

“Okay,” Merlin cracks the bathroom door open and peeks outside. Apparently, the bathroom leads to the garden because it’s for the use of gardeners and maintenance personnel, but during events, guests were free to use it as well. Saves the happy couple from paying for port-o-potties. “No one is around, so I’ll go first and you come out in five minutes.”

“Or we could just walk out together.”

“No way! I’m supposed to be the responsible one tonight, and that means no one finds out about our rendezvous. Everything will go back to normal after tonight, anyway.” Merlin says still on the lookout for people heading towards them.   
Before Arthur can respond, he slides out of the bathroom and briskly walks around the corner to the main garden area. Slowing down once he spots his friends, he grins at them and fans himself, “I know it’s a chilly night, but all these lights and people are making me sweat like a pig.”

Lance chuckles along with Gwaine and Percy, and looks around, “Yeah, but it’s pretty.”

“They’re just twinkling lights, man,” Gwaine shakes his head but has a playful smile. He seems relatively more sober and holds himself upright without any help. “Just like prom.”

“Our prom was nothing like this,” Merlin defends Lance. “The ballroom they rented was too small, and so if you didn’t want to get crushed or stepped on you just walked around with friends.”

“Oh god, our prom sucked,” Lance looked over at where Gwen was talking to an older aunt of hers. “We agreed this would be our sort of do-over. Our own Starry Night with real food and a big enough dance floor.”

“If you told me that, I would’ve bothered to actually find a date!”

Percy pointedly looks over Merlin’s shoulder, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that.”

He turns around to see Arthur walking around the groups of people, but obviously making his way to Merlin if the pissy look on his face is anything to go by, “Oh god. Hide me.”

Gwaine is obscenely obvious as he steps in front of Merlin with a humorous bravado. Percy only awkwardly steps closer to him, not actually concealing Merlin at all despite his giant stature. Lance crosses his arms and gives Merlin a look, “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Merlin whisper-yells. Lance only raises his eyebrows, and Merlin lowers his shoulders in defeat. “I’ll tell you later.”

“May I have a word with Merlin?” An angry voice sounded from behind the human shield.

“Um, actually, I’m pretty busy right now.”

“Doing what?”

“I owe so many people dances, and think it’s about time I made good on those, so, y’know, maybe later.” Merlin turns and hastily walks into the crowd on the dance floor.  
He takes a deep breath and finds a couple of mutual friends from college already drunk enough to not notice his sudden appearance. He begins to gyrate around with them and pretends to be just as happy as the girl (Gina?) who giggles and wraps her arms around his waist as they jump along to the music.  
A tight grasp on his shoulder spins him face-to-face with Arthur. His corn blue eyes are blazing and his eyebrows are so close together, Merlin thought he could see the hairs touching, “What the hell was that?”

Merlin backed away from him, “What, am I that rusty?”

“I-I-No,” The blonde’s eyes widen as he splutters. “I’m talking about you walking away.”

Merlin pushes away the all-to-familiar panic rising in his chest and turns it into anger. He’s not great at warding off assholes, but he’s gotten better at getting rid of them, “What the fuck are you complaining about? You got a free pass; A hookup with no strings attached. Just move on, and we’ll eventually forget about each other.”  
He turns to walk away, yet again. That is how you keep yourself safe. That is how you avoid getting hurt.

“I don’t want to forget.”

Merlin stops in his tracks and rotates his body in disbelief, “What?” What kind of guy doesn’t want what Merlin is offering? A one night stand (does it count if the night hasn’t ended?) without any drama.

“I don’t want to forget,” Arthur repeats as he steps close to Merlin and grasps his hands. “I want to take you to Waffle House once we decide to leave this reception, together. Or, IHOP, whichever you prefer. I want to have silly first texts, where we might misunderstand each other because we still have to get used to how the other texts. I want the strings. I want to be covered and lost in strings.”

Merlin only looks at Arthur. Really looks at him. The anger has vanished and all that’s left is hope. Maybe desperation. But his eyes are shining, his mouth is starting to quirk up like he’s figured out that he’s won, and his face is just absolutely glowing with hope.  
It’s the first time Merlin has seen that look on anyone looking at him.

Merlin realizes the song has changed to Audrey Hepburn’s ‘Moon River’, and looks around at all the couples dancing. With a deep breath and quick fix of his crooked flower crown, he holds his hand out to Arthur, “Care to dance?”

Relief floods Arthur’s face as he takes Merlin by the hands and pulls him close. As they sway along, Merlin can’t help but appreciate the fairy lights making his golden hair shine and blue eyes sparkle. Maybe Arthur was thinking the same thing because he looked down at Merlin with a soft, goofy smile.  
The panic and regret never once took place in Merlin’s stomach as they danced, and when he hesitantly placed his head into the crook of Arthur’s neck, he felt the blonde’s hitched breath brush his cheek as Arthur rested his head atop Merlin’s.

When Merlin caught Percy’s knowing glance, he scrunched his nose teasingly. The gentle giant rolled his eyes and mouthed “I knew it”.  
Merlin breathed out a laugh, but once again was brought back to Arthur when we felt vibrations. With a satisfied sigh, he closed his eyes and listened to Arthur hum.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think!


End file.
